2007 Geheimrat "J" Riesling Spätlese trocken Wegeler, Rheingau (0,75l)

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate - 2007 Geheimrat "J" Riesling Spätlese trocken, Wegeler

The 2007 Riesling trocken Geheimrat J shows a clear, golden-yellow color and opens with a very clear, deep and also coolish and smoky nose with fine, well-concentrated stone fruit aromas. Dense and full-bodied on the palate yet with racy acidity and a fine but firm tannin structure, this is a quite powerful but elegant Riesling with very good, complex length. Tasted as part of the big Geheimrat J vertical in Wiesbaden, January 2024. 2007 is a vintage that, after a picture-book autumn and seven weeks of completely relaxed harvesting in dry and warm weather, created top healthy picture-book grapes, including raisins with up to 312° Oechsle. April and May were already extremely warm, and if you add the summer, the 2007 vegetation period was even warmer than 2003, which, at that time, was the warmest since the beginning of regular weather records in 1884. Another very warm first half of June then led to a development lead of over three weeks. This lead diminished somewhat over the rather average summer, and ripening in the Rheingau began, like in 2003, on August 3rd, although the ripening was slower and more continuous due to a much better distribution of precipitation than four years before. The harvest took place between September 18 and October 19, which demonstrates that a long hang time, especially in certain, cooler sites, is possible even in early years. - Stephan Reinhardt, Apr. 2024